Two weeks ago, at 24 weeks old, Maya spent her first two hours at doggy-daycare. When we picked her up and took her home she was upset to leave, and we couldn’t really tell if she was tired at all. This is a big thing for us; getting Maya tired.
So last week we tried it again. This time for a half-day (4 hours) in the afternoon. For only her 2nd time going to this place she seemed to know where we were going and got more excited the closer we got. She couldn’t wait to get inside and as soon as we did, she was off like a rocket. She ran to meet the greeter dog, quickly moved to each of the workers in the reception area, and didn’t even look back at us when they opened the other door to take her back with the friends.
This time we were able to watch her for a bit when we got back home as they have web-cameras set up for public viewing. Surprisingly, they had her in the ‘Tiny-Tots’ area for this visit. At 35 lbs she wasn’t the smallest, but still not the largest. We later learned they had 80 dogs come that day, so it appears there was a lot of mixing going on trying to keep everyone happy but not overly excited.
Four hours seems to have been sufficient. She doesn’t get a lot of running in when at the daycare, but the greeting, the romping, and the overall stimulation does the trick. Well, for at least a day.
